Brothers in Arms
by Quiltvent
Summary: Percy and Nico show up to camp at the same time, and together they figure out how to last in a world where monsters exist. No Pairings Yet.


_**So, I'm going to start this off by saying: If you're reading this story, I'm going to assume you've read the books, so I don't need to go into too many details on what happens in the Titan's Curse. (I tried thinking of a way for Percy, Nico, and Bianca to be children of Hades as siblings and it just didn't click like this.) Also, if you have any recommendations to make about this story leave a review!**_

Fourteen-year-old, Percy Jackson ran through the thick shrubs and trees littered throughout the forest he was in, somewhere in New York. The scenery started to blend together in a mixture of mostly white, with bits of green and brown. It was the middle of winter as he was running from that thing, he'd called a step-father. His mother had shoved him out of the house when he'd gotten home and told him to run to this place; some strawberry farm in New York. . . Why? He couldn't tell you- all he could tell you is that he had no problem seeing in this weather, when just like every other normal person he knew, he shouldn't have been able to see a thing. He felt stronger at night. His mother always tried to change the subject when he brought it up.

He continued to run as fast as his long legs could carry him. For only being fourteen, he was tall at 5'11 and that certainly wasn't because of his mother, who was only 5'4". He never knew his father, he was always told that he'd left before he was born. That his father wanted to stay but couldn't. It'd always sounded like a poor excuse to Percy, but that was probably because of what he had to deal with instead of a real father.

The thing chasing him was supposed to be the replacement, his step-father, who's now wearing nothing but bright white Fruit of the Loom underwear. The guy had always resembled a cow, but come on, the guys a bull now? He's got two long curling horns on the top of his head that looked like they could slice through him as if he were butter. He'd be the reason that Percy is currently running through a forest and into a strawberry farm, because apparently, he'd be 'safe' there. He'd been chased since he got out of the cab about ten minutes prior.

It also seemed as though the bull didn't have very good eyesight, because he ran faster than Percy, so it was odd to him that he hadn't been run through with one of those horns. Percy continued his sprint into the forest, nearing a hill that he hoped would lead to safety; he wasn't sure how much longer he could run for.

He could feel the cold seeping in, slowly sapping what little energy he had left. The snow was still falling, and the wind continued to howl. . . just not as loud as the bull who kept on plowing through the trees behind him.

Percy had just reached the base of the hill when he had to dive out of the way before he became a frozen Percy-on-a-stick. The only reason he knew to dive was because his senses were screaming at him; He liked to imagine it were his own type of spider-sense. (He's a huge Spiderman fan)

He looked up to see the bull rip it's horns out of the tree they were stuck in before turning around and sniffing. He looked straight at Percy. He huffed out twice, each breath able to be seen clear as day to Percy.

He slowly stood back up, dusting the snow off his pants. He only had one chance to dodge and run up the hill, which might've been easy had it been the summer, but trudging up a hill, knee-deep in snow was certainly no walk in the park.

It only just now clicked with Percy, that he'd been chased by a bull who was running on two legs and not four. It had clicked because the bull got back down on four legs and steamrolled right towards Percy. He got within two feet of him before he had a face full of snow and had missed his target. Percy stood watching as the creature got back up to face him.

Percy brought both fists up to his mouth before breathing into them, first the left, then the right; trying to heat them up before he chickened out of his idiotic plan. Again, the thing that was once Gabe, now a bull-monster, charged at Percy. Percy squatted down and waited until it got closer.

_Five feet_

_Two feet_

_-Now!_

Percy extended his legs and jumped as high as he could, at the same time grabbing the left horn of the bull with both hands and pulling back on his descent back to the earth. With a loud 'crack' the horn came snapping off the bull, landing in Percy's hands.

Percy came to a rolling stop in the snow, getting it down his pants and in his hair, before looking at the horn in his hand._ No blood. . . huh_. He flipped the horn upside down, as if he were wielding a knife in both hands and again, he waited. At another time Percy might've even laughed: a bull with the body of a man in white underwear, with just one horn doing laps in the snow.

But for now, he had to do something to end this. "Come on, Gabe! Is that the best you can do, you unicorn!" That seemed to get a reaction, obviously understanding his unicorn jeer. Percy crouched down as Gabe rushed towards him once more. Instead of jumping this time he was going to try to use what little maneuverability the bull had to his advantage.

The bull was closing in and Percy got ready. He got on the pads of his feet and began to roll before he felt a large hand closing on his neck. _Oh shit!_ Gabe got his hands on him and raised him up to look him up in the eyes, before presumably he had his neck snapped.

He came face to face with the same red eyes he'd been around for almost a year. Huh, Percy had always thought Gabe's eyes were that way because of the constant drinking. _Here goes nothing._

Percy jammed the other horn into Gabe's chest, he was banking on the fact that he had a heart and wasn't the heartless bastard he'd always thought he was. He got his answer when the bull made the saddest sound Percy had ever heard. It was a mixture between a scream and a roar. He might've felt bad too had the thing not been trying to kill him.

Gabe released him, and Percy landed in the snow. He looked up only to get a big pile of snow in his face- You know, if the snow had been peed on and was somehow dry and not cold. _God, it's like saw dust, what the hell is this stuff?_ He was covered in it, and so was the area directly around him. Gabe was gone though so that was a plus. . . _Is this Gabe?_

Percy looked around once more before standing back up and brushing himself off to the best of his ability. It didn't help that it was pretty much plastered to him after he'd been soaked in snow, then having the dry golden dust fall on him. He began his trek up the hill he'd risked his life getting up.

He marched through the snow and finally reached the top- Only to see a dragon wrapped around a tree with a golden blanket above him. _This day has only gotten weirder_. Granted the dragon was small, but after what he had just gone through, he didn't think he could fight a dragon no matter how small.

He gave the dragon a wide berth before walking on, and into the middle of what looked like a camp ground. The moon was low, so it must've been early in the morning. A fire was still burning; and from his point of view he could see cabins, a lake, a farmhouse, and surrounding it all was the other side of the forest he'd just come out of. Even weirder was the fact that there was no snow throughout the entire camp ground.

Still being soaked, he trekked to the fire and sat down with his hands out. The fire gave off a dull purple glow as he got seated, which didn't quite sit well with him. But it provided warmth which satisfied him enough to forget about the purple glow.

He was so tired and cold that he passed out without noticing the eight-year-old girl that had been caring for the fire. Or the protests outside of the farmhouse by an irate undying teenager.

Percy woke up to find himself staring at a wooden ceiling. Upon further review he was in a building made completely of wood and laying in a bed. It was rather surprising considering he didn't remember falling asleep there last night.

Then his memories started to return. His mother, who'd taken care of him for the past fourteen years of his life, had kicked him out of the house under the guise that he'd be safer. He'd attempted to argue but she wouldn't take no for an answer, so he'd hopped in a cab and got as close to the farm as he could.

_I hope she's alright. I need to call her as soon as I can and get some answers for once in my life. _He took another glance around him. There were a few other beds the same as the one he was in, evenly splayed across the room. Only one other bed was occupied but she was asleep by the look of it. Each bed had a table next to it, although his and the girls were the only ones with some apple juice on it; his also had a horn. _The horn_. That only confirmed that last night had happened. He grabbed the apple juice and sipped through the straw that'd been placed there. _Oh my god, this is definitely not apple juice_. It tasted like his mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies. He'd sucked down the entire thing within a few minutes.

He placed the glass back on the table and sat up. _Now to get out of here_. He was swinging his legs over the side of the bed when the door swung open and a man in a wheelchair rolled in. Standing next to him was a blonde boy around Percy's age. They were both talking in hushed whispers before they noticed he was awake. They seemed mostly surprised to see that he was awake before they realized his glass was empty.

The blonde boy rushed over, "How long ago did you drink that?"

"Um, about a minute or two ago, why?" The blonde had a hand on Percy's forehead now presumably checking to see if he had a fever.

"Do you feel warm, does anything hurt?" The boy quickly asked.

"No! Again, why?" Percy was now looking between the two, who were looking at one another with confused expressions.

"Well, you weren't supposed to drink the entire thing. Normally when someone drinks too much of it, they burn up."

"What, you're worried I'll get a fever from that?" Percy asked disbelievingly

This time it was the man in the wheelchair that spoke up. "No, what he means is that they literally start to burn from the inside out, until they are no more. It is quite miraculous that you have survived even this long."

Percy gaped at both of them. "That makes no sense. . . You do realize that, right?"

The man ignored the question and looked at the blonde boy, "Will, make sure he's not injured, and explain to him the situation. Take he and our young friend, Nico, into the Den and show them our orientation film."

"No problem, Chiron." Will responded.

Will did a few other tests, checking to see if there were any bones broken, or concussions to be made aware of. He had a look of concentration and glanced back at the empty glass on the table a few times, which seemed as if he were still worried he might burn alive.

Will closed his pad of paper, "Alright, you seem fine. Which is a miracle considering you fought the minotaur and survived."

_The minotaur? Of course!_ He knew that it looked familiar; It would explain the running on two legs thing.

"Okay. So, you've poked, prodded, and asked more than a few questions. I've got a few of my own." Percy declared.

Will didn't look surprised. "Okay, shoot."

And so, Percy asked. What the deal was with the drink. How long he'd have to stay. He asked about where he was. And why the minotaur was even a thing.

Will responded to the best of his ability. Saying that the drink was supposed to heal him and should only be drank in small doses. Will told him that if he had a parent to watch over him, he'd only have to stay during the summers, to train for some reason. His last two questions were answered together though.

Will waited a minute as he tried to thing how best to word this. "You're at a place called Camp Half-Blood. The reason that the minotaur exists is because he's a monster. You stay here for summer so that we can train you to survive in case monsters do ever try to attack you."

"But why would they attack me, and why am I only just hearing that monsters are real?"

"That would be because the rest of the world, the people who can't see the monsters, they're purely mortal. You on the other hand, are only half mortal. Had you been full mortal you would not have been able to see the camp for what it was. You also would have 100% burned up had you drank that stuff beforehand."

"Half mortal?" Percy was sure he must've looked like he didn't believe Will, but he did. That monster that attacked him made sure he had no doubts.

"Yes. The other half of you is the blood of a god. That's what makes you special and why monsters attack you. They can smell your godly side. Though to have the minotaur be the first monster to attack you, and at age fourteen you must've gotten both good and bad luck." Percy waited for him to go on. "It's usually at age twelve that monsters start to attack, but you got an extra two years. On the other hand, it was the minotaur that attacked you."

"So, God is my father? Does that make me Jesus?" Percy asked.

Will smiled, "No, not God, but a god. Lowercase 'g' as in a Greek god. Now whether you're a child of a major god or a minor god is yet to be seen, but I guess you'll have to wait to be claimed to find out."

"Claimed?"

"When you're claimed, a symbol will appear above your head, and you'll get to stay in one of the nine other cabins. If it's a major god, you can stay in their cabin, if it's a minor god, you'll stay in the Hermes cabin."

_Oh. . . _"Do you have any idea who my parent could be?"

"Well considering your green eyes and black hair, I'd say Poseidon, but the Big three, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon all swore never to have kids again. Zeus broke that oath, but the other two have so far kept their end. Well, I guess we'll find out if that's still true soon enough. Now come on, another new camper showed up yesterday as well. He was already told about this beforehand, now you guys just need to see the orientation film."

They both stood up. It felt good for Percy to finally stand and stretch. They walked into what they had called the den and Percy waited until Will brought in another kid who looked similar to Percy. All but the eyes. Percy had sea-green eyes, but this kid had dark brown, almost black eyes.

He sat down next to Percy. He didn't look very happy.

"Hey, My name's Percy." Percy offered his hand.

The other kid seemed to be a little reserved for a moment before he smiled wide and shook his hand. "I'm Nico."

Together they watched the introduction video. 

* * *

It was later that night at the dining pavilion that Percy realized how little people there were at the camp. They were sitting at the Hermes table as neither he nor Nico had been claimed yet.

There were twelve tables for the twelve Olympian gods. No one had ever lived in the Hera cabin, so no one sat at the table. Zeus' only demigod child alive, Thalia, was on a quest with Nico's sister, to save her best friend, Annabeth and the goddess Artemis.

Neither Poseidon nor Hera had any children. The Hermes table was the most filled table of them all, apparently, they didn't have any family to go back to once summer ended. The rest of the tables had between one and six kids there, besides the Hephaestus cabin, which had nine. In total, after the quest had left which took a Satyr named Grover, Thalia, and Annabeth, that left the camp with less than thirty kids.

Oh, and the hunters of Artemis, who had to stay at camp while Artemis was captured. There were less than twenty of them, with two of them on the quest, and one of them in the infirmary. That was the girl he had seen when he was in there. Apparently, she was supposed to go the quest but got sick from Centaur blood the night before._ Bad timing_.

According to Nico, Percy had already missed the Capture the Flag game between the hunters and the campers, and they were beaten badly as tradition continued for the 57th time. Directly after the game, a mummy came out and started spewing out green smoke before infiltrating their mind and speaking a prophecy.

That night Bianca had said goodbye to Nico and had gone on the quest to save her mistress. Now, Nico just had to hope his sister would survive the trip.

They both got food and scraped some into the fire. Not knowing who their godly parent was they both prayed to Artemis that his sister would be fine. They went back to the Hermes cabin with full stomachs before getting into their sleeping bags on the floor.

"Hey Perce, how do you like camp so far? I don't know how to feel about it, I mean, nobody really seems to like me being around."

"Don't say that. I enjoy having you around. Honestly you're my best friend here."

"Perce, I'm your only friend here." Nico said with a grin.

Percy punched Nico in the side. "Shut up!" They both laughed.

"You're my only friend here now too, Perce. Me and Bianca have always been together for as long as I can remember, which isn't that long, but she gets a better offer and just up and leaves. Now she's going on a quest to save someone she's only met once. I get that she's saving a goddess and all. . . but Bianca's my sister. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with her being gone."

Percy took his hands out from under his head and took his eyes off the ceiling. "I'm not going to pretend to know what you're going through, man. But she is getting older, and she has her own life to live, but so do you. You're family and nothing's going to change that, but maybe it's time you split off and lead your own lives. She's a hunter now, and we can't change that. But we can learn to live here, and enjoy our time, maybe even train."

Nico's eyes widened when Percy mentioned training. "That's a great idea. We can train until we're strong, and then Bianca can come back, and we can protect her instead!"

Percy mentally frowned, obviously Nico still wasn't grasping that Bianca swore an oath to forever hunt with Artemis for as long as she lived. He decided to veer the subject a little. "Yah man, we can train all day every day. There was a deadline to the quest, right?" Nico nodded. "Okay, then we'll train together from sun up to sun down, as long as the Stoll's say yes."

From closer to the front of the cabin came a yell, "Yes, you guys can train. As long as we can use you for pranks." The boys' eyes widened. "And no, we're not eavesdropping, you guys just talk very loud."

Nico grinned, "Thanks guys!"

Both boys went to bed shortly after, anticipating the events of the next day. Nico thinking of how he'd train till his body was numb so that he could have his sister back. While Percy thought about what kind of weapon he'd train with.

Percy and Nico woke up and got breakfast at the pavilion. Percy spoke to Chiron about calling his mother, to which he agreed. Percy went to the big house to call his mother, while Nico went to the arena to find a weapon he could practice with.

It was a quick call to his mother, she was ecstatic that he was safe, but had a feeling that he'd made it. They'd talked for a little while longer before she told him that she needed to get ready for work.

Percy jogged to the arena from the big house and met up with Nico. "Hey! You didn't start without me, did you?" Nico looked up from his sword swinging, holding back a grin. "No. No, I didn't." Percy could clearly see straw strewn about the arena from Nico as he was the only one in there. Nico continued, "How's your mom doing?"

Percy walked over to the weapon storage shed. "She's good, I told her I'd be staying for the rest of the year, and once summer's over we'd discuss whether or not I'd come home depending on how safe it'd be." Nico met up with Percy in the shed.

Percy looked around, all the weapons were made of Celestial Bronze. The only known metal that can kill monsters. It wouldn't do anything to mortals, but it could hurt demigods and gods alike. Hanging up, lying on the floor, and leaning against the walls were an assortment of weapons to choose from, some of them damaged. There were spears, swords, daggers, and more.

Nico swung his sword in his hand as they continued looking for a suitable weapon for Percy. Percy picked up sword after sword, but none ever felt right. A dagger didn't interest him in the least. He tested out a few spears as well. The only one that seemed to work was a lightweight, albeit damaged, celestial bronze tipped spear. Its pointy end was fine and would do the job but the back half, the blunt side, was broken so the spear wasn't as long as it should've been, but it'd work for the time being.

He swung it around a few times and nodded at Nico. Nico smiled and ran out into the arena before turning around and getting into a stance. Percy did the same. Their stances were terrible but forgive them for having never been trained.

Percy started a combo jab, low then high, in return Nico sidestepped and batted the attack away. They continued this process for an hour, resulting in a lot of sweat and a bit more knowledge on how they should go about this. They weren't aware of the man that had been watching them from afar either.

Soon they decided to switch things up and practice on the dummies instead. Testing out new combinations. To the average eye they looked like two fourteen-year-olds swinging weapons around haphazardly, which in a way they were, but to the man watching he could tell they had some real promise and a heck of a work ethic.

They continued striking the dummies until the horn was blown signaling lunch time. They both walked back to the pavilion, covered in sweat, with blistered and bleeding hands, and smiles on their faces.

**_Lemme know if you want me to continue this story. If I do, they'll probably explore the labyrinth a little._**


End file.
